HORIZONTAL

MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES IN LIBRARIES
Presented by Kamallah Kaplan
LIS 770 01 Management of Libraries
May 5, 2015

The real voyage of discovery consists

not in seeking new landscapes but in
having new eyes. ~Marcel Proust

WHAT IS THE LIBRARY?

Is the library a crossword puzzle?

Or is the library an open door to?

Existential Crisis?
Roughly 2000 years library as gatekeeper of knowledge
To be or not to be print? Physical repository or digital repository?
Dissenting opinions about the identity of the library

e.g., IT merging with librarianship & divisive higher ed.

Information abundance instead of information scarcity
Wealth of information available thru the Internet
Disruptive technology/economic/social change

Technological disruption isnt limited

to libraries:
Video stores replaced by Netflix & Amazon
Taxis replaced by Uber & Lyft
Newspapers replaced by Google News
Physical Banks replaced by online banking
Hotels replaced by Airbnb

Horizontal Management
Collaboration
Open systems
Coordination tools
Innovation
Creativity
Discovery
Experimental
Seeing with new eyes

Management Ideology
Vertical
Hierarchy
Power trickles down
Organization

empowered
Planned coordination
Coordination tools are
expensive
Information scarcity

Horizontal
Team oriented workflow
Reciprocal feedback;

information flow
User/customer is
empowered
Spontaneous coordination
Coordination tools are free
Information abundance:
Information wants to be
free.
Knowledge is difficult to
capture

Traditional Management/Vertical Mgmt.

Make
stakeholders
happy

Horizontal Management/Radical Mgmt.

Delight
Users

Trends
Internal use of social media by management and staff e.g.,

blogs, Web 2.0 & Web 3.0; more intelligent web

Customer delight
Librarians as coaches/guides
Users/customers are empowered; dictate the marketplace/
services
Responsive website design, mobile apps, embedded
librarianship
Open source software/content management systems
Creative economy; think like a startup
Networked learning, e.g., information hubs supplement higher
education
Diverse information streams

Challenges to Horizontal Management

Fear of change drop your tools
Old habits, e.g., replacing old

technology with new technology

Responding to episodic change vs.
preparing for continuous change
Budgets
Boards

Coordination Tools Support Horizontal

Management/Collaboration/Innovation
Email
Social Media
Mobile Phones
Supports both external an internal

communications
Coordination tools are generally free,
reducing the cost of coordination

The computer age requires a change in

management mindset.1
New ways of seeing/discovering
Drop your tools; work culture not ready for new service

models/change; inertia; stuck in old paradigm

Cognitive bias, limits the way a person uses objects; sensemaking with technology; drop fear of unknown
Integrative thinking
Psychology of space
Hubs, e.g., learning commons hub; a center of innovation;
community practice; independent and collaborative projects
happen simultaneously. Wider learning lens.
Embedded librarians

The Big Shift according John Hagel, CoChairman for the Center of the Edge
http://bcove.me/6jrsi16s

Future of Libraries
Horizontal Management =
Entrepreneurial librarianship
Thinking like a startup
Information hubs, e.g., learning commons. Libraries as

stages for conversation

Information flows
Librarians as coaches/guides
Librarians embedded in the process of higher ed.;
involved in the process, not passive
Hire evangelicalspeople who LOVE libraries; reduces
turnover & supports collaboration

WHAT IS THE LIBRARY?

The Library of Alexandria was a

collaborative space in the 3rd Century BC

Apples Genius Bar is innovative, collaborative,

and offers some free services

DISCOVERY IS
A PROCESS

If one looks for an organization, one will not find it.

What will be found is that there are events, linked
together, that transpire with concrete walls and these
sequences, their pathways, their timing, are the forms
we erroneously make into substances when we talk
about an organization. 2

MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR

BEING PART OF THE
DISCOVERY PROCESS

Photo & Video Credits

Slide 4 photo retrieved from http://fcit.usf.edu/internet/chap5/library.htm
Slide 5 photo retrieved from http://lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course5/images/ed00013_.gif
Slide 10 and 11 photos retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/07/08/the-five-big-surprises-of-radicalmanagement/

Slide 6 video retrieved from

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid3845269942001?
bckey=AQ~~,AAAAsVluimE~,NGi8PKtOOMlgGMxwSUDnB5JktqS5Hc88&bclid=346859868
3001&bctid=3449937725001

Slide 19 photo retrieved from

http://blog.prehistoricshamanism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hypatia.jpg

Slide 20 Genius Bar Retrieved from

http://headtale.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2014/02/IMG_0720-600x445/3411651786.jpg

Works Cited
1. Denning, Steve. 2015. Do we need libraries? Forbes, April 28.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/28/do-we-need-libraries/
2. Weick, Karl. 1974. Middle range theories of social systems. Behavioral Science
(November) 19, no. 6: 357-367.